Sam and Max: Freelance Police

Well I was thinking about it just recently, and apparently I’ll be on the fortuitous side of coincidence.

Telltale Game‘s new episodic Sam and Max games are set to be released on Xbox Live.  “Sam and Max: Save the World” is the entire collection of Season One episodes sold in one package, becoming available in less than a week.  So not only do I get to play them in HD from my couch, I also get the associated achievements!  It’s a double win!

Sam and Max: Save the World will be available June 17, for 1600 MP.  I’ve already topped up the appropriate amount of points for it … almost.  There’s always got to be a fucking surplus, doesn’t there?

Sure, a Big Daddy looks cute in rag-doll form

More E3-ness (although I’ve been meaning to talk about this one for a while), more and more details have been trickling out of 2K recently about BioShock 2, a game I’m very much waiting for.  I picked up the original quite late, which proved nice price-wise, but I kicked myself when I played the game for not having bought it sooner.  The thing I loved most about it was the art direction.  The underwater city of Rapture drips with 1920′s style architecture and class.  The character design is brilliant too, with most of the residents of Rapture having long ago succumbed to being “splicers”, genetically altered and mutated freaks on a constant search for Adam (the catalyst for all genetic modification).

What worries me however, with the upcoming release of the sequel, is that the original BioShock had a very linear (albeit brilliant) storyline and might prove a little difficult to follow.  But the dev team seems to be taking pains to remain true to the original game in matters of design and gameplay, so hopefully it will prove itself good in it’s own right.

BioShock 2 puts you in the hulking boots of a prototype Big Daddy, the enormous, scuba suited bodyguard to Rapture’s Adam harvesting Little Sisters.  By the looks of things this prototype is a fair bit more agile than the Daddies you encounter in BioShock 1, and also will have it’s own splicing abilities too.  2K released a gameplay trailer a little while ago showing off the weapons and abilities of your Big Daddy, and introducing the Big Sister, who is presumably the game’s protaganist.  Amongst the new features are the ability to combine splices (the video shows flaming cyclone traps) and the ability to take the Big Daddy out onto the sea floor.

The game is also going to be introducing multiplayer, something that was lacking from the original.  Players will take the role of genetic modification test subjects from early Rapture, which sounds cool as it’s also supposed to give a glimpse of the underwater city before it fell into disarray.  From the sound of things, it’s going to have it’s own little RPG kind of feel to it too, with players slowly building up their splicing abilities and attributes in their own little apartment of Rapture between matches.   Neat to see a game taking on both a sequel AND prequel element in one package. Hopefully it proves worthwhile, because while the pressure to add multiplayer is almost overwhelming these days, not every game actually needs it (something which the original BioShock proved).

Still, eagerly anticipating this one!  Would you kindly go and pre-order?

So admit it, you're singing the theme music out loud to yourself

The wife woke me up this morning to give me this news, and it was worth the interruption of my slumber.  Two bits of news, in fact:

1. They’re remaking The Secret of Monkey Island
2. They’re creating NEW Monkey Island episodes

I can’t actually remember the last NEW adventure game I played, it was probably one of the “use random impractical solution 87″ Gabriel Knight series.  Never-the-less, adventure games were one of those genres that never seemed to make it past the early 90′s.  I think in the new millenium the only genre releases of note would be the new episodes of the brilliant Sam and Max series (which I’m yet to play, scolding reminder to self).

I’m happy to see that the genre hasn’t been forgotten, because for a long time it was the bastion of good writing in games.  Action games stuck to their guns and explosions, racing games to wheel-spin and big jumps, and adventure had the storylines and the jokes.  These days, of course, a game can’t (or sometimes really shouldn’t) leave the studio without having some epic nine-part storyline, take Cooking Mama 6: Death Throes of Time for example (coming this fall!).  But in the massive effort to cover every single base, a lot of games can actually miss the mark completely.

So it’s good to see that adventure hasn’t completely disappeared off the developer’s repetoire, because more often than not it’s the best genre to mix storyline, puzzles and humour.

What’s also nice to see is that the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island is stay true to it’s roots.  The updated version features handpainted backgrounds, full voice acting and a simplified menu/inventory system for those playing along on the consoles.  What sold it for me, however, is that with a push of a button you can revert the game back to it’s original state, in all it’s 8-bit pixelled glory.  It’s a nostagic touch, and a welcome one at that for those of us who grew up with the game.  You can see the trailer and promo video here.

So I’ll be buying the remake, because I know it’s a quality game and well worth playing through again.  As far as the new episodes go, well, those I might wait on the reviews for, but I’m certain they’re in good hands given that it’s under production by the original creators.

GH: Aerosmith it ain't

Either you like their music or you don’t. That’s kind of the theme of this game. If you like Metallica, then you’re guaranteed a solidly built game that will probably constantly get dragged out for a bit an afternoon thrash. If you don’t like Metallica, but enjoy Guitar Hero, then this game is great fun for super fast licks and chunky, heavy chord progressions. If you don’t like Metallica, or Guitar Hero, well I’m not sure why you’re even looking at this page. Seriously, why? A friend put you up to it? What a jerk. You should tumble dry all their cotton t-shirts.

I love Metallica, one of the more favourable byproducts of growing up with a metal-head brother. And you have to admire (if nothing else) the band’s knowledge of their fans. This game is built for Metallica fans. Need proof? Check the track listing:

• Total number of Metallica songs: 28
• Songs from questionably received albums released after “Load“: About 5 or so

This game is for the fans of classic Metallica tunes, Black Album and earlier pretty much. The selection is fantastic. They probably couldn’t release a Best Of collection that does as much justice to their earlier work. (more…)

As a highly informal introduction to the topic I’m about to cover, I’ll simply say:

New Thief game on the way, son! God daymn!

Eidos Montreal officially announced on the 11th (after playing the making it fairly obvious game for a while) that another installment in the Thief series is about to begin production.

Now those who know my style of gameplay will know that I’m a completionist at heart. Nothing drives the wife crazier than to sit next to me while playing an RPG, because to watch me means that the story runs at a snails pace as I proceed to poke around all corners of a given area hoping to find bonus items, chests, content or whatever. To create an of example, my style of play kind of runs thusly:

“Quickly Player Character, the volcano has exploded and we must flee down this mountain as fast as we can!”
“Certainly! Let me first just check that we didn’t accidentally miss something right in front of the lava flow!”

And you’d be surprised (or maybe you wouldn’t, who am I, John Edwards?) to find out how many games actually let you get away with that. So for me, playing a game is mostly about thoroughly exploring as much as possible of the world a game creates. And if it’s an Xbox game, unlocking as many achievements as possible (like the achievement whore I am). (more…)

Nintendo have always managed to keep a good grip on the portable gaming market, fending off challengers like the Sega Game Gear and Sony PSP. Well some clever young things at ThinkGeek have worked out a way to increase that monopoly again, this time using original NES as its basis.

Get the mop, because you're drooling on the floor with awesome

It’s called the Retro Mini Handheld, and if I had been a Nintendo fanboy rather than a Sega kid, well I would have already ordered one out of sheer squealing nostalgia. What makes it infinitely more awesome is that it uses the original NES cartridges, slotted into the top of the unit. And given how big an original NES cartridge is, well, the unit is kind of dwarfed by its games. And I don’t know why, but that is just beyond cool to me.

The only problem of course is that they don’t make NES cartridges any more, so your game selection would be limited to whatever you could scrounge on eBay. And if the units prove popular (and why WOULDN’T they? Mother of God, look at that beast!) you’d probably be paying a hefty premium in retro appreciation (both the fiscal and emotional variety).

Master System version please!

Check out the details here…